USA TODAY International Edition
CHANGE COURSE
Trump- owned golf course is not appropriate host for inclusive event
The USGA needs to move the 2017 U. S. Women’s Open from Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf course, Christine Brennan writes,
The U. S. Golf Association faces a terrible problem.
As it works diligently to recover from decades of discrimination against women in its game, it faces the dreadful reality of holding the world’s most important women’s golf championship, the U. S. Women’s Open, at a course owned by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who bragged in a videotape from 2005 that he could sexually assault women.
The next U. S. Women’s Open is scheduled to be held July 1316, 2017, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N. J., about an hour drive from New York City and a 10- minute drive from USGA headquarters.
It must be moved. A Trump golf course, no matter how beautiful and centrally located it might be, cannot play host to an event that is the crown jewel of a women’s sport, that draws competitors from around the world — not after all the awful things Trump has said about minorities, immigrants and women, culmi-
nating in the lewd and disgusting video made public last Friday.
It doesn’t matter that Trump’s courses have hosted men’s and women’s golf tournaments. That was then. This is now. His comments about women have been repulsive throughout his presidential campaign, but last week’s video took them to a new low while giving them a prominence similar to what the Ray Rice elevator video gave to the issue of domestic violence two years ago.
It doesn’t matter that the U. S. Women’s Open is only nine months away.
It doesn’t matter how much planning has gone into the event.
It doesn’t matter how many tickets and sponsorships have been sold and would need to be refunded.
The USGA is not just another business running another golf tournament.
It is the national governing body for golf in this nation, with a mission to look out for the best interests of boys and girls and men and women in a game that millions love.
The USGA has focused particular and admirable attention the past few years on the game’s decades- long discrimination against women and girls, and it has made a special effort to encourage them to take up the game.
How can there be any doubt about what the USGA must do? It must dump Trump National and find another location.
The thought that Trump would host an elite women’s international sporting event is so offensive to so many that it’s not difficult to imagine another topnotch golf course stepping up quickly, and happily, with sponsors and volunteers readily falling in line.
When asked Wednesday to talk about Trump and the 2017 U. S. Women’s Open, a USGA spokeswoman declined comment.
We can only imagine the conversation in the offices of USGA leaders — the worry and concern over whether, at this late date, they can afford to move the tournament.
There’s a much bigger question for them to ask themselves: How can they not?
How can there be any doubt about what the USGA must do? It must dump Trump National and find another location.